


Nevermore、Of Blood

by Misen



Series: Nevermore [1]
Category: Diabolik Lovers
Genre: Blood Drinking, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Explicit Language, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Imprisonment, Massacre, Murder, Non-Consensual Blood Drinking, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma, Revenge, Swordfighting, some explicit content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2019-11-03 17:29:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17882138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misen/pseuds/Misen
Summary: Mitsuna Itomori, an enigmatic and elusive student at Nishikami Academy, finds herself in the hands of the powerful and revenge-seeking Tsukinami brothers. However, she may have more in common with them than they realize.





	Nevermore、Of Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A group of bandits venture into an abandoned house hoping to discover some worth stealing but are faced with the grim reality of what happened to the house's former owners.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm baaaaaaackkkk! Yay! So this chapter doesn't directly feature Mitsuna but I've become a fan of these slightly removed prologue chapters before immediately following the protagonist. That being said, the story will follow Mitsuna from here on out. Thank you for being so patient with the rewrite, I'm happy to return to this story and make it even better!

In a black forest, nestled somewhere between the realm of humans and that of the rumored demons, was a house. Not so terribly tall as to surpass the roof of the forest, yet formidable in its own right, the house was rooted in a clearing of the trees surrounding it. Its exterior was comprised entirely of slate-gray bricks, with large ornate windows arranged to provide perfect symmetry with the large, oak front door acting as the point of focus. No one was quite sure when the house had been built, but in the years since its recent vacancy, ivy climbed each brick and the house was gradually swallowed by the black forest. 

The house was not always empty. Perhaps it had been there for some odd centuries, always home to one certain family. They were all rather withdrawn, dark-haired people with little desire to become entangled in the business of societal matters. The men of the house were stoic and steadfast in their traditions and principles. The women followed in tow, silently embracing the lifestyle of a recluse. It was true that, up until a few years ago, they had very little to do with what existed outside of their house. The children that were reared there simply played in the clearing, or ventured about the forest, their only company being one another. The men and women might’ve gone into the nearby town, shortly before dusk to purchase whatever they couldn’t provide by themselves but such visits were few and far between.

And then, in the silence of a single morning, the entire family was gone without a word. All their earthly possessions remained in the house, only to serve as a resting place for dust. Word traveled, as is only natural, and many people theorized as to what caused the sudden disappearance of such an ominous presence that resided amongst the owners of that house.

It was for that reason that the house became incredibly enticing to the likes of graverobbers, squatters and those cut from a similar cloth. There was some talk of expensive golden heirlooms, fine jewelry crafted from silver and precious gemstones. And the chatter remained idle. Perhaps it was fear that prevented anyone from actually exploring the house, much less taking the belongings of the family that had lived there. And yet, some were far too brazen to have such reservations.

A group of men, about five in total, had gone searching for the house one night. They varied in age, the youngest of the group only 16. Each had their reasons for wanting to find the house, and moreover, each was motivated to take something valuable from it. Their search began in the mid-afternoon but the house itself eluded them until the sun had set and the sky had become void of all light. On that night, not the moon or even a single star appeared. Though, such a thing had gone unnoticed. Flashlights in hand, the men finally came to the promised clearing and there it stood the infamous house. There was some eagerness in their hearts as they approached it, though that eagerness soon gave way to apprehension as they fully took in the house’s lifelessness. Although ivy and wildflowers grew around it, the house seemed entirely barren and almost corpse-like. The gray bricks had shifted out of place ever so slightly and the windows had fogged over, web-like fractures leaving the glass panes precariously suspended in their frames.

Despite the coldness that seemed to emanate from the house, the men pried open the front door and allowed a cloud of musty air to escape into the night sky. A foul odor spilled into their lungs, nearly choking the oldest of the group, who had been standing in front of the rest.

“An animal… must’ve died inside…” he spoke in a meekly reassuring tone, though it couldn’t be said whether he was trying to comfort the other men or himself.

Allowing the flashlights to pierce the darkness within the house, the men entered. Everything was covered in a gray film of dust, the small decorative tables in the foyer to the banisters of the stairs that wrapped around the room. There was nothing of extraordinary value that caught their attention upon first glance, other than a candelabra chandelier that hung perfectly centered in the foyer. However, there were a number of faded splatters on the walls and marble flooring. Though the color had long since leached out of whatever made the stain, it wasn’t very difficult to imagine what the splatters were. The men had halted not far from the doorway, their breaths hitched all coming to the realization of what might have taken place in the house.

“Don’t… fret over it. Whatever happened here is… in the past, no?” one of the men chirped, his voice not much louder than a whisper and his stout body trying to steady its tremors. “Remember why we came to this place, men.”

The men nodded in agreement, though hesitant to pick their feet up. They stood in silence for some time before greed finally moved them along. They scoured the first floor- the sitting room, den, kitchen, dining room, and study- yet found nothing more than some antique furniture that was far too drenched in the stench of the house to ever be sold. The china in the dining room and kitchen was stacked neatly in displays, each plate, bowl, and cup broken into clean little pieces. One of the men thought it might’ve been deliberate, but couldn’t think of any reasoning behind doing such a tedious thing. The books in the study, or what books remained, were children’s fairytale books with each page scribbled on in black marker rendering them entirely useless as well.

After a fruitless search, the men gathered back in the foyer and looked back to the staircases. The first to start the expedition upstairs was the stout man who had spoken up earlier. He held his flashlight firmly in his hand, going up each step with a deep exhale. The other four stood at the base of the stairs, watching him struggle to ascend. And then, when he had gone halfway and gained a clear view of the upstairs rooms, he stopped abruptly. 

“Blood…” he mumbled, no longer to hold his flashlight still. 

“Come back down!” the oldest man hissed, grabbing the other men by the shoulders. 

“It’s everywhere… how many people…?” the stout man uttered in a daze, stepping backward without much regard to the narrowness of the steps beneath him.

“Careful!” the youngest man shouted, leaping ahead of the group and managing to catch the man before he tumbled backward entirely.

Both men hurried down the steps, with almost every one creaking as they descended and met back with the rest of the men. They talked amongst themselves, trying to calm the stout man down. But, one of the men began to stray from the group, taking more interest in the staircase than steadying someone’s nerves.

“Huh,” he mumbled to himself, going to the wall that lined the staircase. 

“What is it?” the oldest man asked.

“When they were on the stairs earlier… a few of the steps made a different sound than the others… Almost as if…” the man’s voice slipped off into a whisper.

“What?” the youngest man asked.

The man knocked on the wall three times, an empty sound reverberating off of it each time.

“It’s hollow here…” he stated.

The men collectively hummed in confusion, rising to their feet and coming to examine the wall of the stairs with him. 

“Yes, right here… The wall is different as well. See how it’s a bit raised?” the man spoke, running his fingers over the groves of the molding. 

There was a small square of the wall, lined in a golden molding, that had nothing behind it. And with some force, they were able to pry the square off cleanly. And to their surprise, what was hidden behind the wall was another staircase, going down beneath the foundation of the house. 

“I’m going down,” the man spoke, already going through the small space.

“Wait! Who knows what the hell could be down there?!” the oldest man shouted after him.

“Exactly!” the man shouted back, his voice becoming more and more distant with every step.

The other four stood dumbfounded, listening as the man’s footsteps gradually faded from earshot. For a moment, they wondered what rested beneath the house. Was it as gruesome as what awaited them on the second floor? A long corridor, soaked with blood from wall to wall? Perhaps the corpses of the family who once lived in the house were hidden down there, rotting all this time? What might they look like by this point? Skeletons or was there still flesh that clung to their bones?

“I found something!” the man’s voice suddenly erupted out from the darkness gleefully. 

And without much thought, the remaining four quickly bounded down the steps and followed him down into the dark expanse before them. Using their flashlights to guide the way, they found that what was beneath the house was nothing like they had imagined. Pristine white walls with candle sconces mounted every few feet and a clean, albeit dusty floor beneath their feet. They were entirely too relieved by the somewhat calming atmosphere to realize that the way out had been closed off behind them. And five pairs of footsteps rejoined the man who ventured down alone. When they reached him, they found him standing above a large rectangular object propped up against the wall with a tarp over it. And though the corridor continued to stretch on, it seemed there was nothing other than the object before them as far as the eye could see.

“That’s it?” the oldest man asked.

“It could be a painting. Old houses like this probably have a bunch of priceless paintings from dead artists,” the man said.

“The painting’s owners are certainly dead…” the stout man said under his breath.

“Hush up, let’s see it,” the youngest man said. 

And at his word, the oldest man pulled the tarp off the painting. Immediately, their hearts sank. The painting was in a glittering gold frame, but the canvas itself…

“It’s been destroyed…” the stout man said.

One could assume that the painting had, at one point, been a family portrait. There were four people within the portrait, but three of the faces had been viciously gouged out. The face of the father, the mother, and a young boy. The only face remaining whole was that of a young girl, no older than 13. Her black hair was styled neatly with white and gold ribbons. She was dressed in a red dress, with numerous ruffles to show some sense of nobility. And her eyes, her eyes were perhaps the most fascinating thing about her. They were the color of amber and even through the painting, seemed to reflect the flashlight’s illumination. And the right one was a bit…

“What a beautiful girl…” the youngest man spoke, his voice suddenly weakened at the sight of her.

“I wonder… what happened to her after this…” the stout man added solemnly. 

“May God have mercy on her… if she survived whatever happened here,” the oldest man said.

“How tragic…” another man spoke.

Suddenly, each of the five men came to attention, a sharp tension piercing between their shoulder blades. The voice had just spoken to them… was a stranger’s. They all turned, seeing a sixth man had joined them. From head to toe, he was covered by a hooded cloak with only his mouth visible. The men resisted all urges to scream and simply stood facing the stranger with their mouths agape and fists clenched.

“It’s tragic, no? You know it wasn’t that long ago actually, that the family that lived here was massacred. Three generations wiped out in a single day just about four years ago. It’s tragic how dilapidated the house become in such a short time, isn’t it?” the man spoke.

“Who the hell are you?!” the oldest man snarled at him, though he could swear he could hear his own heart beating relentlessly in his ears.

“And who the hell are  _ you _ ? You’re the ones trespassing, are you not? Tell me, you came here intending to steal something precious, right?” the strange man snapped back, causing the men to fall silent. “Well, I hate to spoil your fun, but there is nothing worth pawning in this house. All the valuables here were destroyed along with the men, women, and children who lived here.”

For a moment, no one uttered a single word. What was there to say? How would they proceed, the men wondered. After all, it couldn’t be so simple to pass by the strange man who suddenly appeared and cornered them in the underground walkway beneath the house. 

“You all seem… a bit disturbed,” the stranger laughed. “Truly, it’s not so bad. Maybe you’re afraid because you don’t know what happened here in this house. So, why don’t I bestow the gift of knowledge onto you? You see, in total, the family who lived here was forty people. 6 grandparents, 14 parents who collectively had 20 children. And every single one of them was torn to shreds in the halls of this house, well… almost every single one,” the man explained, gesturing to the girl in the painting.

The stranger took a deep breath before his lips curled up and parted to reveal a toothy grin. Where his canines should have been were two large fangs, glinting like daggers in the dim light.

“And you see, the only thing capable of such mass murder was no human. Anyone care to guess what killed them?” 

In that black forest, nestled somewhere between the human realm and the rumored realm of demons, the screams of men could not reach another living soul. Every sound was swallowed at once by the trees and the dark house, filled with shadows, became nothing more than a crypt. 

For some reason, the words of the stranger lingered in the minds of the men until they drew their last agonizing breaths.  _ Almost every single one _ … And the face of that beautiful young girl was the last thing to cross their minds before their souls departed from the cruel world they lived in, never to return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone want to guess what killed them or is it too obvious?


End file.
